Home Soil (Episode)
| Series | Star Trek: The Next Generation |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 18 |
| Production Number | 117 |
| Release Date | 22 Feb 1988 |
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Stardate 41463.9: Data and La Forge discover a "microbrain"
The Enterprise is sent to check on a remote terraforming station on Velara III, which is working to transform the planet into a fertile, habitable Class M world. During the visit, an engineer is mysteriously killed when the laser drill in the hydraulics room malfunctions. Minutes later, Data narrowly avoids the same fate. As he and La Forge examine the drill, they discover what comes to be called a microbrain. This unusual inorganic entity turns out to be a life form native to the planet. As Dr. Crusher and Data investigate the life form, the tiny being declares war on the terraformers. By pumping and desalinating the narrow subsurface water band, the terraformers were killing the microbrain.
The power it draws from the ship's systems is strong enough to deflect a transporter beam. Finally, it is determined that the entity is photoelectric, and shutting down power to the lights weakens it enough so that it can be sent home. In doing so, the Enterprise crew promises to abide by the entity's request for no Federation contact for three hundred years, and the planet is quarantined.
Director
Corey Allen
Story
Karl Guers & Ralph Sanchez & Robert Sabaroff
Teleplay
Robert Sabaroff
Starring
Patrick Stewart … Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes … Commander Will Riker
Brent Spiner … Lieutenant Commander Data
Gates McFadden … Dr. Crusher, Beverly
Marina Sirtis … Counselor Deanna Troi
Denise Crosby … Lieutenant Tasha Yar
LeVar Burton … Lieutenant, j.g. Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn … Lieutenant, j.g. Worf
Wil Wheaton … Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher
Guest Starring
Walter Gotell … Kurt Mandl
Elizabeth Lindsey … Louisa Kim
Gerard Prendergast … Bjorn Benson
Mario Roccuzzo … Arthur Malencon
Carolyne Barry … Engineer
